"Why the hell is Steve staring at that beach ball?" That was the question of the afternoon at NeXT's 1987 company retreat. "It's always about beach balls with him," they muttered derisively, "what's so interesting about beach balls?"

These, of course, were but the first of millions of much more profane Apple/beach ball related mutterings to come. And that last question, made up as it may be, is a good one: There is nothing interesting about beach balls, rainbow colored, spinning or otherwise. Nothing at all.